In the fall of 1998, staff began a City-wide space study to determine short-term office space and long-term overall space needs for City employees. Interior Architects (I/A) consultants were hired to conduct the study and make recommendations as to the City's space needs. The space project was broken into two segments; the short-term office space plan detailing needs for office space over the next three to five years and the long-term overall space needs for the City over the next 10 to15 years.

Over the course of several decades, City services have grown to accommodate the needs of our community. Staff has adopted and utilized building space as efficiently as possible. While some space has been added, such as the South Annex building, to address localized growth, the entire City's work force has outgrown existing office space in virtually all buildings throughout the City.

The City Hall Annex was originally built as a headquarters for the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety. The building was designed as a public safety building and included such features as holding cells, interior corridors with many security doors, and a back up power source. In 1985 the City completed construction of the new public safety headquarters at 700 All America Way, opening up the City Hall Annex for other Departments to occupy. At that time, there was no need for the City to remodel the City Hall Annex as the building served the space needs of the existing staff without modification.

The City Hall Annex is currently occupied by two departments, the Department of Information Technology, and the Department of Finance. The office of the Director of Parks and Recreation recently vacated the East side of the building and moved across Olive Street to 500 West Olive. This move was made to free up space for the overcrowded Department of Information Technology.

The Department of Finance provides a diverse set of services to the residents and businesses of Sunnyvale. The department runs basic finance functions needed by all organizations such as accounting, revenue collection, treasury management, utility billing, purchasing, and payroll. Additionally, the department prepares and delivers the City’s budget, provides consulting services to other departments regarding finance issues, and contributes to the management of a large number of other city wide projects including the downtown redevelopment, performance auditing, and implementation of outcome management.

As with most departments, the demands from internal and external sources on the Department of Finance have increased over the past 10-20 years, requiring the need for additional staff. The space for the departmental staff is largely inadequate, does not meet the City’s space standards, and does not provide for efficient file storage.

The south-west end of the City Hall Annex building is a mix of ex-jail cells, ex-showers, and closets that were not retrofitted when the building was converted from public safety to general use. The space is poorly set up for offices and was designed as an area to check in suspects and hold them for questioning or transfer. The space is very inefficient and underutilized for general office use.

The Annex remodel project includes major building remodel, moving costs, reconfigurations, network systems, utility hook-ups, and related construction activities associated with this type of project. Costs for implementation of the project are currently estimated at $176,000.

The project will optimize 1780 square feet of office space at a cost less than what is available on the open market for office space. Currently, monthly rents at the Sunnyvale Office Center are $2.25 per square foot. This project would provide the space needed to accommodate Finance’s needs for at least the next five years at the equivalent of a monthly rent of $1.65 per square foot.

The Adopted FY 2002/2003 Budget includes an expenditure line item for public facilities space issues in the General Fund. The current balance in this line item is $1,139,674. In FY 2001/2002, Council approved a project in the Capital Projects Fund designed to implement short term office space solutions throughout the City. The original budget was $1,750,000 with $1,319,564 planned for carryover into the current fiscal year.